The Impact of European Employment Strategy in Greece and Portugal Europeanization in a World of Neglect

By focusing on three key areas of employment policy – public employment services, gender equality policies and flexicurity – in Greece and Portugal, this study provides a model to explore how European Employment Strategy (EES) can influence member states' employment policy. It argues that the main mechanisms of EES-induced change were empowerment of domestic policy entrepreneurs and European Social Fund financial conditionality. Soft power can therefore be wielded in the world of neglect without policy learning, which is considered the main 'soft' Europeanization mechanism.

Sotiris Zartaloudis is a Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Politics, History and International Relations at Loughborough University, UK, where he has been since September 2013. Previously, he was Lecturer in International Politics at the Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK. He holds a PhD in European Studies which he obtained from the London School of Economics.

1. Introduction
2. The European Employment Strategy and National Employment Policies
3. Theoretical Framework
4. Public Employment Service's Reform in Greece: Following the EU Money?
5. Reforming the Portuguese PES: Europeanization through Soft Law Empowerment?
6. Tracing the Europeanization of Greek Employment Policy (GEP) with Regard to Gender Equality Promotion: Following the ESF Money?
7. Gender Equality Promotion in Portuguese Employment Policy: Europeanization through Domestic Empowerment
8. Incorporating Flexicurity in Greek Employment Policy: from a Promising Start to a Melancholic End
9. Conclusions